Beast Quest 5 – Tartok the Ice Beast

Adam Blade's Tartok The Ice Beast is a Beast Quest adventure for 7 year olds, set on a frozen plain at the top of the kingdom.

What happens

Tom and Elenna have been travelling for a long time by the point this one starts.

The Beasts of Avantia have been enslaved by a dark wizard called Malvel and set loose on the kingdom. Tom carries a key that frees them, a sword, and a shield that gains a new power every time he succeeds. It already holds four. The map that shows him where to go was made by a wizard and the route glows on the parchment.

He's a blacksmith's nephew. That's all. He has never met his father.

This time the map points north, to ice that runs out of sight in every direction and mountains standing up behind it like teeth.

Then the weather turns. The sky goes grey, the snow comes sideways, they can't see a landmark or work out which way east is, and they end up digging a snow cave with the edge of Tom's shield and sleeping in it with the horse blocking the door.

That's the pleasure of these books. Trouble arrives at a steady clip, the chapters are short, and the solution is always something practical the children work out for themselves rather than magic doing it for them.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Worth knowing, because it's the one thing here that might catch you out. The book opens with a chapter called Blood on Ice. Two boys are out collecting healing moss when a thing with blood-red eyes and yellow fangs comes over the horizon. One of them is slashed across the side, the ice splits, and both of them fall into the dark underneath it. That's where the chapter ends.

It is over quickly, and it is written to thrill rather than to disturb. But a 7 year old who takes things to heart may well lie awake on it, and you won't know until it's happened. Read the first chapter yourself before bed, not after.

There's also the sad thread running under everything, which is Tom's father Taladon, gone since Tom was a baby, and Tom wondering whether he's even alive to hear about any of this.

What to read next

If your reader wants to know how the whole thing started, Ferno The Fire Dragon is the first one. Tom is still in his village mending tools for his uncle, the horses have been attacked, the river has dried up and the crops have burned, and nobody can work out why.